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Technology Stocks : Wi-LAN Inc. (T.WIN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Randall Cunningham who wrote (71)	4/12/1999 10:51:00 AM
From: Uptickin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16863

Calgary wireless firm in play Monday, April 12, 1999 MATHEW INGRAM Calgary -- It might seem like all the action in the telecom world is in the ultrabig leagues, what with all the multibillion-dollar mergers going on -- but there's plenty of activity on the fringes as well. One of the smaller players is Wi-LAN Corp., a wireless networking company that has been drawing admiring glances from some large telecom equipment players. Just a year after going public on the Alberta Stock Exchange, Wi-LAN said recently that it has implemented a "poison pill" shareholder rights plan to give it some breathing room in the event of a takeover offer. President and co-founder Hatim Zaghloul says he wants to make sure Wi-LAN doesn't get snapped up by the first low-ball bidder. Dr. Zaghloul said Wi-LAN has been approached by companies ever since it went public, but interest increased last fall after Wi-LAN's wireless transmission technology (called wide-band orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, if you must know) got the seal of approval from an international standards body, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). "Things really started to get serious after that," Dr. Zaghloul says. He expects Wi-LAN will complete some kind of deal within the next six months. The Calgary company, which Dr. Zaghloul and a fellow university researcher set up in 1992 to commercialize their work in high-speed wireless data transmission, has already struck a number of key deals. In February, for example, Wi-LAN signed a deal worth $36-million over three years with the Swedish telephone company Telia AB for some of its wireless products. Last summer, it got a preliminary order from Tele2, a unit of Millicom International, the British cellphone giant. Wi-LAN (which stands for wireless local-area network) makes wireless modems and wireless network switches known as "hubs" and "bridges" that can be used where laying a regular phone line or network cable is either too costly or simply impossible. For example, some of the company's early wireless modems were (and are) used by oil and gas companies to collect data about pipeline networks and various other remote field operations. The company's products also provide high-speed data transmission and can therefore be used to extend corporate computer networks between buildings or across fairly long distances. Unlike some other wireless products, which only provide speeds of one or two megabits per second (compared with traditional corporate network speeds of at least 10 megabits per second), Wi-LAN's latest devices can transmit data at 30 megabits per second. As telephone companies and computer networking companies are becoming more and more alike, both are looking for ways to extend their existing networks to as many new customers as possible, as cheaply as possible and with the highest speeds possible. Rather than laying hundreds of kilometres of fibre-optic cable, which is the Cadillac solution, some smaller companies and foreign operators like Telia are looking at wireless. One of Wi-LAN's other recent announcements was a deal with a company called RSL Communications to provide wireless products for an Internet-based network RSL is planning to build in Western Canada. RSL was founded by Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics fortune, and has joint ventures in Germany, Yugoslavia and Mexico -- as well as a subsidiary called Delta Three that is involved in Internet-based telephony. In Canada, Mr. Lauder's company is partnered with one of this country's telecom legends, Mike Kedar, the man who started Call-Net Communications (which later became the parent company of Sprint Canada) and single-handedly helped open up the long-distance telephone market in the early 1990s. Last year, RSL bought Westel Telecommunications, the network originally set up by BC Rail -- but since foreign entities can't own communications companies, RSL partnered with Mr. Kedar's company, MK Telecom Networks. One of Mr. Kedar's other ventures, interestingly enough, is an underwater fibre-optic cable that will connect New York with Bermuda and Florida, a joint venture with a company called Global Crossing. The latter has been in the news lately because investors have pushed its stock up to the point where its market value is close to $20-billion (U.S.). Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which helped handle one of Global Crossing's early financings, now owns shares that are worth about $3-billion. When it comes to Wi-LAN, industry watchers say high-speed wireless networking will play a part in the plans of virtually every major telecom around the world, either to expand their networks into regions where fibre isn't available or to supplement what they do have. Major equipment companies like Lucent Technologies and Northern Telecom also have wireless products (which they have acquired by buying small technology companies like Wi-LAN), but so far analysts say Wi-LAN leads the pack when it comes to speed. Last year, Northern Telecom spent a staggering $600-million (Canadian) to buy a small Winnipeg high-speed wireless technology company called Broadband Networks, even though it had few sales and about $15-million in revenue. The purchase took most of the industry by surprise and showed how eager the large equipment companies were to get into wireless. Will Wi-LAN produce a similar kind of surprise? That remains to be seen. Business West readers can reach Mathew Ingram by fax at (403) 244-9809 or by E-mail at mingram@globeandmail.ca Its about time this company gets the due it deserves. Happy investing, Uptickin

To: Randall Cunningham who wrote (71)	6/27/1999 9:16:00 PM
From: Randall Cunningham	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16863

Fund managers on TALK 640 show recommend Wi-LAN. I was listening to "Canada's Money Show" on TALK 640 this evening in Toronto, and the two guests were Robert Tattersall (fund manager for Saxon's Growth Fund) and Peter Hodson (fund manager for Synergy Mutual Fund's Canadian Small Cap Class fund). One of their recommendations was Wi-LAN. Just bringing it to the attention of thread participants. Please do not e-mail me or ask me since I do not follow WIN personally or in the funds I manage. Randall S. Cunningham PS. Congratulations Drs. Zaghloul and Fattouche. I know you both have different focuses, but since you are both the "fathers" of Wi-LAN and Cell-Loc, I'm sure you're quite proud of your achievements. Hopefully big-sister WIN will rub off on little CLQ.